How to buy Mobile, Tablets, Gadgets from US, UK & Ship them to India

Most of the Gadgets are introduced & Sold in US & UK Market first and then introduced later in the rest of the world. Now when really hot devices like Nexus 4, Lumia 920 and Surface Laptops roll in, users outside US and UK just cannot resist it.

This happened to me when Lumia 920 was launched and at times when I wanted to get a product which was available in Amazon US but cannot be shipped to India.

Situations:

Many a times, the products are limited to be sold in US only even though they are available online. So in short you need to have a US or UK address.

Getting the product to India is another issue. You are not only worried about it’s safety but also getting it quickly.

You also are worried about custom clearance.

ShopandShip Service:

As per my personal experience, I would like to recommend ShopandShip service which does exactly what it says. You shop and get it shipped. This service is run by Aramex.

You can signup with this service for ne time signup fee of around 2.5K Indian Rupees(45$ USD). Once you are verified, you get three different addresses i.e One Each for US, UK and China.

Keeping the profile high, the service verifies you and your address over a valid photo id. This makes sure the person who signs up is legit.

Once approved, you will get a ShopandShip ID which will be localized according to your city.

How does it work? (Fast Track)

You order your product online or ask somebody to buy it for you.

Ask them to ship to one of the addresses.

Once it is received by ShopandShip, you get a notification.

Send your Product Invoice to them over email.

ShopandShip sends your product to the address you registered with them.

They take care of Custom Clearance.

How to use ShopandShip: (Long Run)

Get the address right:

Once you have the address, The important part is filling in the address you get from them. It’s important because you need to fill in your SnS ID correctly. So where is your SnS Id ?

After you login to your account, look under and you will all three address available. The format should be

The second line has your SnS id. This should be same in all the three address.

Good thing about the addresses is that they are available in the format you will need to fill in. Even if not, there is a help link available which tells you exactly how to fill in. You will have to use the SnS Id most of the time in the second address line or the first.

For each of these addresses, there is dedicated example page available right under each address. UK and US are almost the same though China differs a bit.

Share your Invoice with ShopandShip:

This step is very important because ShopandShip needs an invoice to get your gadget cleared at customs and for shipping from US to India. So once you have ordered your product, send the bill or the invoice to ShopandShip and the tracking number of the product.

Once the product reaches ShopandShip Address, you will be notified. It’s a good time you ping them once again and get the status. Once ShopandShip routes your package to your address, you will get another tracking number which you can track using Aramex.

Read the Tips:

The support for this service is very good. You can get your answers over twitter or over email. So here are few tips you can follow.

If your product is online, send them the link of the product along with your PIN code. This way they can tell approximate cost of Custom and Courier charges for your location.

Make sure to fill in your address properly when placing the order. SnS account number is very important.

Make sure to use your actual address as the Billing Address. Do not use the SnS Shipping address for this purpose.

Make sure to send them the invoice ASAP so your shipment can get through quickly.

Protection Service is another feature of SnS which can take extra care of your product for a fair price. For products costing less 100 USD, it’s free. Anything above 100 USD will be charged 1 USD per 100 USD.

There are a lot many questions already answered at their FAQ Page. Make sure to read it completely for any doubt.

Tracking your Package:

Windows Phone users, I will suggest you to pick up Parcel Tracking App where you can use Aramex and other 60+ popular shipping services on your phone. It can sync with your Windows 8 device also.

Summary:

Overall it’s an excellent service as per my experience. Not only my package came in time but also the response on twitter and email was nice. I will high recommend this service if you are planning to get Gadgets from US, UK & China to India.